by R. E. Butler
Fate had never babysat before. It had never crossed his mind to offer to watch any of the cubs in the clan before. When Jilly suggested babysitting so Callie and her mates could go on a date, Fate wasn’t sure what the night would bring, but he definitely enjoyed seeing Jilly with her young cousins.
He parked in front of the barn that Callie and her mates had converted into a home. Jilly said to Wyked, “I need the bag on the seat.”
“Got it,” Wyked said, lifting it as he climbed out of the vehicle. “What’s in here?”
“Puzzles and games. Plus, I got this really cute nail polish kit for me and Sophie to try.”
“I’m sure they’ll love it,” Fate said as he joined her and Wyked and walked up to the front door.
It swung open before their feet hit the porch, and Eryx grinned. “Thanks for watching the monsters for us.”
“Don’t call them monsters!” Callie yelled from inside the house.
He held open the door for them and laughed. “You guys already knew that before you agreed to be the wardens for the night.”
“Oh my gosh!” Callie admonished when they walked into the family room. She was putting colorful building blocks into a wicker basket. “Our house is not a prison.”
Jilly laughed and lifted the bag. “We came prepared.”
“Nice,” Ethan said, bringing Sophie into the room. She wore bright pink footy pajamas and held a stuffed bear.
“Jilly!” Sophie squealed, wiggling in Ethan’s arms.
“Okay, geez, I guess I’m chopped steak over here.” He put her down, and Sophie rushed to Jilly, who knelt and accepted the tackle-hug with a smile.
All three boys – Evan, Elliot, and Cameron – called Jilly’s name and raced down the stairs. She quickly moved Sophie out of the way so she wasn’t squished. Like every time before when the boys would hug her, Wyked knelt behind her to help brace her for their hug-assault.
They skidded to a halt a foot in front of her. She raised her brows when they gingerly hugged her as if she was made of porcelain.
“What’s this all about?” she asked, ruffling Cameron’s head.
Ethan cleared his throat. “They almost took Dad out the other day with one of their hugs. The boys don’t know how strong they are, and Dad wasn’t paying attention.”
“It was absolutely not hilarious at all,” Eryx said.
Fate chuckled. He could imagine James getting taken out by three kids who were excited to see him. He held out his fist to the boys, who each bumped theirs against his, and then they did the same to Eryx.
“We said no more tackle-hugs,” Callie said, standing and straightening her gold sparkly top.
“Aw,” Jilly said. She kissed all the boys on their foreheads. “I’ll miss the tackle-hugs.”
“Just Sophie can do it because she’s little,” Elliot said.
“I am not little!” Sophie yelled.
“No, you’re just perfect,” Jilly said. “You’re not little, you’re…petite. How’s that?”
Sophie smiled. “I’m pahteet, Mommy.”
Callie hid her smile behind her hand. “You sure are, peanut.”
“Anything we need to know?” Jilly asked as she rose to her feet.
Callie recited bedtimes and snack options and gave Jilly a timer for how long they could be on their tablets.
Ethan helped Callie on with her coat. “Remember when we were kids, Eryx? Dad used to tell the babysitters how much TV we could watch. Now, we’d like it if the kids watched TV more and had their faces pressed to the tablet screens less.”
“Uncle James was talking about that earlier,” Jilly said. “You’re starting to sound a little old right now.”
“It was bound to happen. Times are changing so fast,” Eryx said.
“We’ll be home around eleven,” Callie said. “Call any of our cells if you need to. Rhett and Lisa are home with Treasure, so you can reach out to them, too.”
“No worries,” Jilly said.
Fate nodded. “Have a nice dinner.”
They kissed the kids goodnight, whispered instructions to behave, and left.
Fate looked at the boys and Sophie, who held Jilly’s hand tightly. “What should we do first?”
Evan looked in the bag and said, “Hey! I wanted to play this game!”
He pulled it out, and they set it up on the kitchen table. For the next few hours, they played every game, built one half of one puzzle before the kids gave up from boredom, and made rice cereal treats, which the kids shaped with cookie cutters.
By the time the kids were tucked in bed, with multiple bedtime stories read and two trips to the bathroom, Fate was exhausted, but in a good way. The kids were fun and rambunctious. The twins – Evan and Elliot – reminded him of him and Fate when they were kids. They were best friends and looked out for each other but also drove each other crazy.
When the house was quiet, he sat down on the couch next to Jilly and took her hand. Wyked was on her other side, stifling a yawn.
“They’re great,” she said. “I’m so glad that we could help Callie, Ethan, and Eryx. I’m doubly happy that you’re here with me.”
Wyked lifted her hand, showing off her bright blue sparkly nail polish. Wyked and Fate were sporting some nail polish, too, but they’d managed to talk the pint-sized girl into just painting one fingernail each.
“I hope we have a little girl someday,” Jilly said. “I had a great time with Sophie.”
“All the kids are great,” Fate said. “When the time is right, we’ll have some little ones of our own.”
“I can’t wait,” she said, giving each of them a kiss.
“We can’t either, sweetheart,” Fate murmured against her lips. Someday, they’d have a little one of their own, and they’d expand their family. In some ways, he wanted to rush the future, to have everything they wanted right now, but just like waiting for Jilly for three years had been sweet, the timing of expanding their family would be perfect, too.
* * *
Wyked had been wanting to get Jilly alone for the last few days. She was irresistible, and his cat was banging in his skull for some one-on-one time with their mate. Fortunately, Fate had a date with their uncle and a smoker that had to be dismantled. The metal monstrosity had nearly a million pieces and would take several hours to take apart and put into storage in a compartment underneath Hanai’s RV. His road-loving cat was anxious to get on the way and share the nomadic lifestyle with Jilly. She was sad to leave, but excited to go, and he could relate to that mixed-up feeling. There were places in their travels that he’d really enjoyed and hated leaving, but the good thing about traveling was that eventually they made their way back to those places again.
He put on his hiking boots and walked out of the bedroom. Jilly and Fate were talking quietly in the kitchen. She smiled at Wyked.
“I want to get a few more plant clippings. Will you come with me?”
“Sure, kitten.”
“I’m off to Hanai’s,” Fate said, giving Jilly a kiss. “See you around lunchtime.”
“Have fun,” Wyked said with a grin.
Fate snorted and waved goodbye, subtly flashing his middle finger at Wyked, which just made him grin more.
Jilly picked up a paper sack and rolled it around a pair of scissors, and she tucked them into her back pocket. Then she turned to face Wyked and put her arms around him, settling her ear over his heart.
He held her and kissed the top of her head.
“I feel like being out in the woods again,” she said. “I do want to get some clippings for my window garden, but mostly I want to assure myself that the monsters aren’t out there anymore.”
“Whatever you need, I’m right here.”
“I know.” She tipped her head up, and he brushed his lips over hers. The kiss ended on a soft note, a whisper of promises yet to come. She turned in his arms and settled her hands over top of his on her waist. “Let’s do this.”
He was amused by her dramatic tone and determ
ination. She always found a way to make him smile, even in serious situations. Although he was quite sure that the monsters were indeed ash, she needed to come to terms with nearly losing both her mates. He’d never had an enemy. He didn’t like thinking about Jilly having one either, but she did – her own people. Because of the curse, the females loathed anything that was different, and Jilly was on their radar.
They approached the place in the woods where he and Fate had been poisoned, and Jilly’s steps slowed to a crawl and then stopped. There was no evidence that they’d nearly died on the ground. There wasn’t a blackened pool of blood that indicated where their end had almost come. It looked just like any other part of the woods. But he still knew exactly where it was, and he thought he’d probably always know.
And so would Jilly.
“Treasure said that she could see the females’ aura and it was evil,” she murmured as she knelt and ran one hand over the dirt.
“I don’t know a lot about auras, but my mom said that fae are capable of sensing them. I suspect Treasure’s dragon knew exactly what the females’ auras meant and dispatched them to protect us.”
She hummed in thought and stood. Her gaze flitted around the area, and he could see an occasional flash of the amber of her cat. They walked deeper into the woods, until they reached the place where the trees showed the evidence of the dragon’s wrath. The ground and trees were blackened by Treasure’s fire, but there was no ash to signify the dead.
“The forest will reclaim this,” he said, sliding his hands around her waist and pulling her gently against his chest. “In a few years, you won’t be able to tell that any of this happened.”
“I’m glad I didn’t see that part,” she said with a shudder. “I have enough going on in my dreams just replaying you two contorted in pain and dying.”
“We’re safe now. Don’t forget that.”
“I won’t.”
They stood in silence. Wyked stared at the trees and the burned bark, thankful for the dragon who had sought vengeance on their behalf.
“Let’s go,” she said, snapping from her reverie. “There’s a place that Hanai told me about where there are late-blooming blackberries.”
They held hands as she led the way.
“Don’t birds eat them when they grow in the wild?”
“I don’t need the fruit necessarily, but I need the plant itself. Blackberry leaves are great for all kinds of things.”
“Such as?”
“Mainly I’d use them for wound care. They’ve got astringent properties.”
“I never knew so much about plants.”
She grinned. “Me either.”
They found a patch of blackberries with a few of the dark fruit still on the vines. He helped her pull several of the individual plants by the roots and tuck them into her sack so she could transplant them, and then they snipped several handfuls of leaves to dry and add to her collection.
When they finished, they headed back to the RV, and he was glad to see that Fate was still working with Hanai. He was happy to take Jilly into the woods and be there for her while she made peace with what had happened, but he really, really wanted to get her alone and show her how much she meant to him.
She transplanted the plants into prepared pots for her window garden, and then she laid the leaves in the food dehydrator and turned it on. She washed her hands and dried them, and then she turned to face him.
Her amber eyes watched him.
“Now that the work’s done,” she said, biting her lower lip.
“Yes?” he asked, unable to stop his grin.
“We need to play. I wanted to make love before we left, but I figured we’d never leave the bedroom if we did that.”
“Very true, kitten.”
She settled her hands on his shoulders and kneaded them. “We haven’t been alone in a while, just the two of us.”
“It’s about time.”
He kissed her, playing his tongue against hers, his cat purring at the sweet scent of her arousal. She pulled from the kiss with a soft growl and grasped the hem of her shirt, lifting it over her head and tossing it aside. He followed suit, stripping just as quickly as she did until they were both naked, their clothes haphazardly tossed around.
He put his hand on the back of her neck and drew her to him, kissing her deeply. Her hand immediately wrapped around his cock and stroked him. Kissing down her jaw, he bit her earlobe gently and then nibbled kisses down her throat. He bent and kissed her nipples, drawing one into his mouth and sucking on it while he kneaded her other breast. She buried her free hand in his hair and fisted the strands, moaning as he moved to take her other nipple into his mouth. He sucked on it lightly, letting his fingers drift down to her heat.
With a light touch, he ran his middle finger along her lips, coating it with her arousal. He pushed slowly into her, loving the gasp from her lips as her heat enveloped him. Pulling out, he stroked in again, sucking on her nipple and rubbing his palm lightly against her clit. She moved her legs farther apart with a needy sigh, and he kissed her nipple and dropped to his knees, grasping her leg and pulling it over his shoulder. She leaned back against the counter with a groan.
He looked up the length of her body and watched her drop her head back as her hips flexed forward. He loved seeing her lost in pleasure. He continued to pulse his finger into her depths, adding a second one as he nudged her clit with his tongue, circling it in time to his thrusts.
She was so wet and hot, and the scent of her arousal was enough to make him go off like a bomb. He pushed thoughts of his own pleasure away and concentrated on his kitten, letting his cat out a little more to make his purr stronger. He laid his tongue on her clit and purred loudly, the sound making his tongue vibrate.
Her hand twisted in his hair, and she dropped her head down to look at him, her toes flexing on his back. He curled his fingers inside her and pressed against her silky walls, deepening the purr.
“Wyked, Wyked,” she chanted breathlessly. Her stomach twitched, and her eyes flashed to amber.
He wiggled his fingers against the place inside that would rocket her to pleasure and moved his tongue in swift strokes over her bud. Her pussy gripped his fingers a heartbeat before she shouted in pleasure, her fingers twisting in his hair as she panted and smiled.
Slipping his fingers from her, he sucked them into his mouth, and she watched with hooded eyes as he devoured her sweetness.
“I love when you do that,” she murmured, tracing his jaw with her fingers. “Sexy as hell.”
“You’re delicious,” he said, rising to his feet.
He lifted her, and she wrapped her legs around his waist, pressing her lips against his as his cock slid home inside her. He lifted and lowered her with his hands on her thighs, her nipples brushing against his chest with every move. She leaned back, grasping the counter for leverage and began to move with him as he thrust into her. The faster he moved, the tighter her pussy clenched and the sweeter her mewls of pleasure grew.
She tweaked one of his nipples with a sly smile and then dropped her hand to her pussy, rubbing her clit with two fingers. He thrust into her in time to her fingers, both of them driving toward climax. He felt the flood of heat as she came, her cries of bliss pushing him over the edge.
He filled her over and over, his rhythm faltering as he thrust hard with each pulse. He drew her close and carried her into the bedroom, sucking on her throat as she let out little gasping breaths, her fingernails digging into his back and her legs tight around his waist.
He climbed onto the bed and laid her down, stretching out next to her and resting his hand on her stomach.
“You’re the sexiest female on the planet,” he said, kissing her.
She brushed her hair out of her eyes and smiled, her gaze bright with happiness. “That was amazing.” She cupped his cheek and ran her thumb along his lower lip. “I love how we are together.”
“Me too.” He slid his hand slowly down her stomach and gave her a pla
yful smile. “Ready for round two?”
“My insatiable panther,” she said, spreading her legs and tilting her hips in invitation. “I’m always ready for round two.”
Chapter 17
Jilly stopped walking long enough to glance at her phone and check her to-do list. She had a lot to finish before she began her new life as a member of a traveling panther clan.
Fate said, “I can’t believe you picked Cherie’s for our date tonight.”
She turned to face him and tucked the phone into her pocket. “What’s wrong with Cherie’s?”
“There are about a hundred more romantic restaurants I can name.”
“Maybe, but we’re triple dating with Melody, Scarlett, and their mates, and Cherie’s is Scarlett’s favorite place to eat when she’s pregnant. Apparently.”
Scarlett was pregnant with her third child. As a breeding queen, she was predisposed to get pregnant quickly. Her mother, who was also a breeding queen, had thirteen children, twelve boys and one girl.
“Plus, I really do love Cherie’s cobb salad,” Jilly pointed out.
“You’re a predator, you know.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“Predators eat meat.”
“Hello, the salad has like a half pound of bacon on it.”
“You know that’s not what I mean.”
“Don’t you dare say bacon isn’t meat,” she said, poking him in the chest with her finger. “It’s the best meat there is. You never hear someone say, oh that’s too much bacon.”
He snorted and pulled her close. “You’re crazy.”
“You entirely drove me there.”
“All right, if we have to go to Cherie’s, then promise we’ll bring dessert back home so we can enjoy it privately.”
She liked how he accentuated the word privately. It was easy to tell that he was thinking sexy thoughts about dessert.
“I insist.”
He kissed her and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “Love you to pieces, sweetheart.”
She beamed at him, her whole body warming at his words.
